# How effective are NATO anti-tank weapons in Ukraine right now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Tags:** ukraine-invasion\ **Created:** [March 5, 2022, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515 "2022-03-05T09:51:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2022, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/101 "2022-03-18T22:42:53Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Isn’t this calculation only valid if the only point of tanks is to knock out Javelins and the only point of Javelins is to knock out tanks? > > If a tank does $7 million worth of damage before being knocked out by a Javelin, the equation tips in the tank’s favour, doesn’t it? So someone finally invented a Risk/Monopoly hybrid? Cool. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/102 "2022-03-19T00:18:39Z")
[quote=“I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I, post:101, topic:960515, full:true”] > [@Princhester](#): > > Isn’t this calculation only valid if the only point of tanks is to knock out Javelins and the only point of Javelins is to knock out tanks? > > > If a tank does $7 million worth of damage before being knocked out by a Javelin, the equation tips in the tank’s favour, doesn’t it? There’s a fallacy here. When the tank gets knocked out - the crew is dead. The Javelin gunner just loads up another missile and moves on to the next target. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/103 "2022-03-19T00:41:30Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Although at times Putin seems to me the kind of boss who _would_ send his mooks to be humiliated just so he can then further rub it in their faces if they make it back alive. I heard an interview with David Frum (Bush speechwriter of “Axis of Evil”) discussing Trump two or more years ago on CBC. He said something I find memorable “People think Trump is playing 3D chess and really he’s just eating the pieces.” What if Putin is the same? What if while we attribute deep and calculated motivations to him, and he’s just a single-minded thug who’s managed to use his nastiness to come out ahead until now, has only won because he controlled the bigger levers of power? What if he has no intellectual finesse to manage this problem? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/104 "2022-03-19T01:39:37Z")
> [@smithsb](#): > > There’s a fallacy here. When the tank gets knocked out - the crew is dead. The Javelin gunner just loads up another missile and moves on to the next target. That would be an inaccuracy not a fallacy. But in any event, I’m not going to argue the details, which are irrelevant to my point. And you really only add to my point which is that it is not a simple equation of cost of Javelin vs cost of tank. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/105 "2022-03-19T01:43:33Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > What if Putin is the same? What if while we attribute deep and calculated motivations to him, and he’s just a single-minded thug who’s managed to use his nastiness to come out ahead until now, has only won because he controlled the bigger levers of power? What if he has no intellectual finesse to manage this problem? The reason we generally ascribe(d) more cunning and savvy to Putin is that he at least had a long KGB pedigree, and KGB people are assumed to be smart. Whereas there was little reason to believe that Trump was actually playing 4D chess. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/106 "2022-03-19T04:47:33Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The reason we generally ascribe(d) more cunning and savvy to Putin is that he at least had a long KGB pedigree, and KGB people are assumed to be smart. Whereas there was little reason to believe that Trump was actually playing 4D chess. I’ve heard this too - but also some commentator who had encounters with Putin back when he was in the post-Soviet administration of St. Petersburg, I think it was. He did not describe him as a notable person at the time, was surprised when he gained prominence in the Russian government. Also pointed out he was working in the KGB bureaucracy, not in advanced analytical role. Maybe an apt comparison would be as a (until now) more restrained version of Stalin? Interesting summary of the military situation: > **[Ukraine: What have been Russia's military mistakes?](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60798352)** > > Senior Western defence and intelligence experts outline the battlefield errors made by Moscow. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/107 "2022-03-19T12:21:49Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > Ukraine was not able to defeat Russian backed separatists for the last few years. > > But that was my point - they were not “unable” so much as cautiously unwilling to mount the level of force required to fully defeat the breakaways, for fear of provoking Russia. Hence that much-violated local ceasefire the last few years. Plus there was the tit-for-tat risk of adding bigger equipment to the fight, followed by the rebels getting better equipment (and “volunteers”) from Russia. The risk of retaliation is moot, and the Russians probably will have less incentive to throw troops into that region. Or, the troops will be less incentivised to do so. > > It depends on what happens next. Will the Russians grind to a halt and then withdraw (“declare victory and depart”)? Or will we see Ukrainian offensives pushing them back? If the latter, why stop before Donbass? The whole point and their national pride means removing any semblance that Russia got anything it wanted, I assume. If the political will remains in Moscow we will see a Russian victory. If they are willing to grind they will eventually win. What they do next is in question. Ukraine has been able to slow the invasion. They have been able to inflict casualties. There is no evidence showing they have the ability to mount any type of offensive. I doubt they have the ability any more. I hope I’m wrong. > [@msmith537](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > Which is why you have drills so it’s engrained. The safest thing to do is to have your frontal armor towards the enemy. Modern top attack missiles negate some of that but you still don’t want the enemy to have plenty of time to set up a shot on your flank or rear. You want them to try and get off a shot with 60 tons of death coming straight at them at 40mph. Russian tanks also have notoriously slow reverse gears. If they try to back out of an engagement they are sitting ducks. As far as I know even the latest upgrade tanks have that problem. > > It’s not just the mathematics of a $100k Javelin vs a $6 million tank. Knowing that there might be a bunch of infantry hiding in all that urban rubble waiting to attack your vulnerable flanks or roof prevents you from driving those 60 tons of death at 40 mph straight at anything. So now you have to creep along slowly, supported by infantry (who are vulnerable to sniper fire, mortars, and everything else). > > I kind of envision the sequence from Full Metal Jacket where the Marines are entering the ruins of Hue. The infantry have to escort the tanks in, taking casualties from mortar and sniper fire. And when they need tank support, the tanks are unavailable. From the videos I’ve seen of ambushes in Ukraine, that film wasn’t that far off the mark. I was speaking more about battles on open terrain. Contract drills in armor consist mostly of turning towards contact and attacking. The videos of ambushes I’ve seen have been on roads but with plenty of open area or on large highways. Not exactly urban terrain. In a movement to contact with tanks it’s insane to be doing from a column. But it’s also insane to attack Ukraine during mid season. If we are talking about true urban combat, that has to be an infantry battle. Tanks should only be in support. It’s insane to lead with tanks and armored vehicles with no dismounts in a city. There are plenty of videos from Syria showing what happens when tanks try to fight alone in a city. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/108 "2022-03-19T12:44:51Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > If the political will remains in Moscow we will see a Russian victory. Maybe… but a slow victory will hurt Russia more than a rapid defeat would have. They might have already mortally wounded themselves. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/109 "2022-03-19T13:02:10Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > . There is no evidence showing they have the ability to mount any type of offensive. There must be some reason the Russians are now entrenching themselves in defensive positions. From [@Maxar](https://twitter.com/Maxar) satellite surveillance: > “Russian forces are increasingly using earthen revetments (berms) to protect/conceal their armored equipment deployments near Antonov Airport in Hostomel as well as other locations in and near Zdvyzhivka and Berestyanka,” ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/110 "2022-03-19T13:44:27Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > If the political will remains in Moscow we will see a Russian victory. If they are willing to grind they will eventually win. What they do next is in question. Yes, that is the question. Can they install a military-backed puppet regime? And then just leave? Highly doubtful. Even if they grind Urkaine down militarily, how do they hold it? ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/111 "2022-03-19T15:34:36Z")
If it cant be maintained without Russian bayonets, it’s not a government at all. Foreign-installed regimes in Afghanistan, whether recently or 150 years ago, didnt last long once the troops left. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/112 "2022-03-19T18:26:51Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > The reason we generally ascribe(d) more cunning and savvy to Putin is that he at least had a long KGB pedigree, and KGB people are assumed to be smart. that’s mostly owed to the Hollywood trope … James Bond and so on … I am pretty sure most are just “your regular civil servant - just like Jerry down at the DMV” … pushing tons of paperwork sideways, up and down … And the ones who are really smart and driven more often than not end up in private companies and make 2-10 times the money … so looking back at a 20+years carreer en a gov. agency quite often simply means “he could not get a job elsewhere” ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/113 "2022-03-19T20:59:38Z")
Just because Russian forces in Ukraine are being _tactically_ defensive (where circumstances dictate and permit) does not mean Ukraine is in a position to be strategically _offensive_, and counter-invade Russia. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/114 "2022-03-19T21:09:42Z")
> [@Al128](#): > > And the ones who are really smart and driven more often than not end up in private companies and make 2-10 times the money … so looking back at a 20+years carreer en a gov. agency quite often simply means “he could not get a job elsewhere” Careful. Remember a “private option” didn’t really exist in Putin’s time. He came up in the Soviet Union, NOT Russia. He resigned during the attempted coup against Gorbachev in 1991. Putin has a law degree and spent years as an intelligence officer in Germany. He may never have been a genius and it might well be he is loosing the plot at this point, but he certainly wasn’t stupid. He was at the very least clever and ruthless - you don’t rise to the top of a labyrinthine dog-eat-dog political system like Russia’s without at least some smarts. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/115 "2022-03-20T04:03:15Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > If the political will remains in Moscow we will see a Russian victory. If they are willing to grind they will eventually win. What they do next is in question. Ukraine has been able to slow the invasion. They have been able to inflict casualties. There is no evidence showing they have the ability to mount any type of offensive. I doubt they have the ability any more. I hope I’m wrong. My prediction is that Russia will win. The Ukrainians are putting up a brave fight and have totally dominated the PR war, but that is in large part simply because Russia don’t care about about PR except internally, and the West is publishing every puff piece Ukraine is putting out, because we are on their side. Everyone knows in theory the first casualty of war is truth, but once a war actually starts everyone forgets that and gobbles up the BS they are fed. For every popular story we are hearing about brave Ukrainians totally pwning the hapless Russkies, there is a hard news story about total destruction of Ukraine’s cities. And we are only three weeks in. Russia is crushing Ukraine and has done so quite quickly. Within Russia, the dominant story will be that Russia is prevailing easily in its totally justified mission to rescue the people of Ukraine from tyranny and/or claim back from the Evil and Threatening NATO Russia’s historically deserved territory of Ukraine. Russia won’t win in the sense of a total capitulation. It will just achieve de facto control and probably turn Ukraine into a semi permanent battleground. The West will feed the Ukrainians arms and assistance so that Russia is tied up in assymetrical warfare there indefinitely. > [@Chronos](#): > > Maybe… but a slow victory will hurt Russia more than a rapid defeat would have. They might have already mortally wounded themselves. A slow victory will (indeed has) resulted in Russia being an international pariah in the West (we are yet to see China and India take a strong position). It has resulted in sanctions which will hurt ordinary Russians. None of this will change Russia’s power structure, and Russia’s military might hasn’t been diminished to any significant degree. Indeed on the contrary this war will have increased Russian paranoia, entrenched Russia’s power structure, bolstered their willingness to invest in the military, and will cause many Russians to cleave to their strongman leader, as is usual in a time of threat. The response of any totalitarian dictatorship to this sort of situation is to dig their heels in, crush internal resistance with even greater ruthlessness, and fight to the bitter end. They cannot do otherwise since the penalty for loss of control in such regimes is literally death for those at the top. There is no such thing as resigning into quiet retirement, or an election where the current regime gets voted out or any of the other “safety fuses” built into functioning democracies. It’s stay in power or die. Unless Russia moves against a NATO country, the West isn’t going to take any direct military action, either push the Russians out of Ukraine directly or otherwise, because that would start WWIII. The most dangerous animal is a mortally wounded one, and we all know what Russia can use if it gets sufficiently mortally wounded. Ukraine is fucked for the next few decades at least, sad to say. And if “all” that happens is Ukraine gets pulverised and held under the Russian boot that is the _least worst_ probable outcome. The other potential outcomes are far, far worse. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/116 "2022-03-20T05:34:53Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Russia is crushing Ukraine and has done so quite quickly. The [Institute for the Study of War](https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-19) in Washington D.C. doesn’t agree with you (and I think you’ll find it difficult to find any military expert anywhere who does): > Campaign Assessment, March 19 > > Key Takeaways: > > - We now assess that the initial Russian campaign to seize Ukraine’s capital and major cities and force regime change has failed; > - Russian forces continue efforts to restore momentum to this culminated campaign, but those efforts will likely also fail; > - Russian troops will continue trying to advance to within effective artillery range of the center of Kyiv, but prospects for their success are unclear; > - The war will likely descend into a phase of bloody stalemate that could last for weeks or months; > - Russia will expand efforts to bombard Ukrainian civilians in order to break Ukrainians’ will to continue fighting (at which the Russians will likely fail); > - The most dangerous current Russian advance is from Kherson north toward Kryvyi Rih in an effort to isolate Zaporizhiya and Dnipro from the west. Russian forces are unlikely to be able to surround or take Kryvyi Rih in the coming days, and may not be able to do so at all without massing much larger forces for the effort than they now have available on that axis; > - The Russians appear to have abandoned plans to attack Odesa at least in the near term. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/117 "2022-03-20T05:57:05Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Russia is crushing Ukraine and has done so quite quickly. This is simply not true, and has nothing to do with eating up Ukrainian PR. Russia has barely made any progress at all in the last week, and their speed in the prior two and a half weeks has been very modest in the best of places, and incredibly slow at the worst. If anything, they have been losing steam the longer the war has dragged on. Kherson is the only city they have taken; Mariupol, on the very border of Ukraine and the Donbas ‘republics’ is still holding out after three and a half weeks, and they still haven’t invested either Kiev or Kharkov and have been making extremely slow progress in both cases, with the Ukrainians making local counterattacks slowing what progress there is even further. Kiev is at least somewhat understandable, it is a very large city astride a very wide river, with a decent distance to cover approaching from the east, and the shorter route from the west having to draw logistics through Belarus. It has still been very slow going for the Russians. Much more mind-boggling is that Kharkov, only 20 miles from the Russian border is still not surrounded. The Russians still don’t have effective control of the air, with the Ukrainian Air Force, small though it is still largely intact and flying, and Ukrainian air defenses unsuppressed. Last week Ukraine was claiming 360-some odd tanks and 1,200 other vehicles destroyed. That’s two entire motor rifle divisions worth of gear, and even counting only 1/4 of that as an uninflated figure is still a lot of armor to be losing in such a short amount of time. There has also been a _lot_ of Russian prisoners taken, indicative of a military with little determination to fight. I was skeptical of the prisoners in the first few days, thinking perhaps it was Ukrainian propaganda fakes, but with the sheer numbers seen it clearly is not. A bit of a sidenote on that - the displaying of prisoners to the media and their being interviewed on the media is a clear violation of the Geneva convention, which isn’t something I’ve heard mentioned much, or well, at all. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/118 "2022-03-20T08:23:57Z")
Your ideas on on “quite quickly” and mine are different. “It’ll all be over by Xmas and then we can go home” has never been true. > [@GreenWyvern](#): > > The [Institute for the Study of War](https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-19) in Washington D.C. doesn’t agree with you (and I think you’ll find it difficult to find any military expert anywhere who does): There is a lot of “unclear” and “currently” and "near term’ in that. War has always been about who can bring the most men and materiel to bear. The issue isn’t how much Russia has lost, it’s how much it can afford to lose. A view I have seen expressed by apparent experts (and which seems right to me) is that Russia thought it would knock Ukraine over easily so it didn’t go in with a great plan or as much men and materiel as it could. But the issue is - will it now regroup and then do so? Putin and his regime won’t back down IMHO. They could be overthrown internally but I haven’t heard any suggestion that is likely. So they will keep throwing military might at the situation till they prevail. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/119 "2022-03-20T11:48:41Z")
I wasn’t talking about the sanctions when I said that Russia was hurt badly by their slow advance. > [@Princhester](#): > > The response of any totalitarian dictatorship to this sort of situation is to dig their heels in, crush internal resistance with even greater ruthlessness, and fight to the bitter end. Crush internal resistance with what? They’ve got 70% of their military tied up in Ukraine, and even that 70% isn’t able to accomplish much. What can the 30% that’s left do to dissidents elsewhere? They can only hold control on the home front for as long as they keep the people buying their lies about what’s happening, but that can’t keep up forever. That huge military they have, that’s effectively imprisoned in stranded, unsupported convoys? Those are sons, brothers, husbands, of people at home. People will find out what’s happening with their loved ones, and most of them will believe them over the Ministry of Truth. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2022, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515/120 "2022-03-20T12:05:28Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > War has always been about who can bring the most men and materiel to bear. The issue isn’t how much Russia has lost, it’s how much it can afford to lose. You seem to think that Russia has vast military resources, which for some reason they’re not using. They don’t. By some estimates they have already committed 70-75% of their available combat troops (as **Chronos** said), and they can’t withdraw all their troops from other places they need them. Why do you think they are trying to sign up Syrians to fight in Ukraine? It’s not for fun. They are critically short of cruise missiles and other missiles, and can’t replace them because they need materials and components they can only get from other countries. They have lost huge numbers of armoured vehicles that would take years to replace. They have lost far more planes and attack helicopters than they can afford to lose. They are even short of basic things like MREs, because the stocks they should have had were corruptly sold off. They asked to China to send them MREs, for goodness sake! That applies to many other things too. Factories that should have been producing war supplies, didn’t, and the money was instead siphoned off to enrich oligarchs. The Russian army has turned out to be a Potemkin army, corrupt and rotten through and through. Even before the war, Russian had an economy smaller than Brazil, Italy, or Canada, and even that was mostly dependant on exporting oil and raw materials. Now they don’t have any economy left worth mentioning. Russian troops are getting more and more demoralised. But Ukraine has a very high morale, strong determination, hatred for Russia, and a steady stream of high-quality missiles, arms, and military equipment from the west. Russia may be able to bombard cities and kill civilians, but they are being worn down and defeated militarily. Time is NOT on Russia’s side. Time is on the side of Ukraine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-effective-are-nato-anti-tank-weapons-in-ukraine-right-now/960515.md?page=7)